For developers, it can feel difficult to defend the need to pay down tech debt. The pressure to deliver new features can feel enormous. But, as any developer working in debt-ridden systems knows, fixing bad code must be a priority. This talk will cover how to make the case for the paydown by building a more trustful team.

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Keith Bennett will present:

Writing a Command Line Utility in Ruby - Automation is Not Just For Your Users

How many times have we dutifully repeated the same mouse & keyboard actions, missing the irony that we spend our lives automating things for others, but so often neglect to do so for ourselves?

This talk will walk you through the design & implementation of a wifi command line utility for the Mac one that you could use as a model for automating your own manual process, including:

--the multitude of cost/benefit decisions, including many compromises for speedier completion.--command suite (e.g. git) vs. option based (e.g. grep) design--how to address a target audience that includes non-Rubyists--class design, including separating back end functionality from command line & user input plumbing, & multi-OS support--providing an interactive shell in your utility

After this presentation you will be able to make a better informed decision about the optimal balance of effort & functionality, & be better equipped to write an excellent implementation.